It was only after the transport truck had pulled away from the loading docks, loaded up with seven hot tubs worth more than $110,000, that workers at a Canadian spa company in Thorsby realized they'd been robbed. And it wasn't the first time such a heist had happened in Alberta: Per the Guardian, just days earlier, hundreds of pounds of beef worth about $175,000 had been lifted from a Brooks meatpacking plant in another "brazen" daytime robbery. In both cases, drivers from a Quebec company supposedly called Transport Pascal Charland had driven up in their trucks, presented forged paperwork to unwitting employees, and then cruised off with their stolen goods. "It's the first time in my 12 years of policing that I've seen this type of thing, certainly this amount of hot tubs or stolen beef," Royal Canadian Mounted Police rep Rob Gilles says.
Per Global News, the first robbery took place Aug. 30 at the JBS meatpacking facility, where the suspect vehicle was described as a burgundy-colored semitruck pulling a white refrigerated trailer. On Sept. 2, a different truck (a white Volvo with a sleeper) driven by a man with a different description than the one who was driving the first truck stole the seven hot tubs from Blue Falls Manufacturing. Both drivers, however, produced papers claiming they were from Transport Pascal Charland. Dennis Kellner, president of Blue Falls Manufacturing, says he was "dumbfounded" on how the robbery at his site was pulled off, noting it seemed to be a sophisticated operation, per CTV News. He says his company has since upped its security procedures around pickups. Police believe the two robberies are linked and will continue to investigate. (More weird crimes stories.)
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